The NY Times and Its Diner Obsession
by tristero
Diner wisdom? Seriously? Fucking again????
At the diner she manages in the heart of New Mexico’s oil country, Joni Moorhead talks to roughnecks all day long about potholed roads, cramped lodging camps, soaring rents — and state politics.
“I’d load up my guns for the fighting if we could just secede and join Texas…”
Oh, how colorful is the beating heart of America’s hinterlands when it comes with a side of fries.
Three Observations on the Death of al-Baghdadi
by tristero
If you believe a single word Trump said about this operation, I’d love to meet soon and discuss this great deal I can offer on a bridge in my home town.
Since withdrawing support for the Kurds, Trump seems to be greatly enjoying the death he can inflict. His pleasure in killing is not yet at the level the bloodthirsty George W. Bush already reached in the first year of his presidency, but the trend is clear — and profoundly concerning.
Anyone who thinks the world is safer today because al-Baghdadi was killed is completely delusional. Why?
Donald Trump is still president.
Side Effects
by tristero
When the medicine is worse than the illness:
Update: Sorry, the video won’t embed into blogger. Just click this link. It’s worth it:
By All Accounts, John Durham Works for the Most Corrupt US Government Ever
by tristero
Media outlets are currently full of vacuous talking heads salivating over the honest, sober, careful, “widely respected” John Durham, the prosecutor who opened up a totally bogus criminal investigation into the origins of the probe into Russian interference with 2016. So let me point out the obvious:
John Durham has no integrity whatsoever. He works for the most corrupt US government and the most corrupt Attorney General in our history (and given the records of Nixon and Bush, that’s saying a lot). If he truly had integrity (and had even a mote of smarts), he wouldn’t be working for Trump and Barr. He would have found an honest way to draw a salary.
Will Durham act with integrity going forward? So far, there’s no public evidence he has any intention to. Let him earn his integrity, and let’s see what he does.
And media? If your talking heads are friends with a government official, they should be banned from praising their honesty and integity. The same thing was said time and again about the utterly dishonest Barr and about so many others, including Kavanaugh. It’s dangerous misinformation and hampers a serious evaluation of what these officials are actually up to.
The Most Amazing Thing That Republicans Believe About Trump
by tristero
They really seem to think that this is all there is, and that not much more will come out if they can just stop the Ukraine probe.
They have no idea who they’re defending, no idea how deep his depravity. Oh, they know he’s crazy, ignorant, profligate, and corrupt. But still, they really have no idea.
We do. There’s a lot more. And maybe not all of it will come out, but a lot more will. And a lot more of those in Trump’s orbit will wind up like Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort before it’s over.
It Was the Bedbugs
by tristero
I’m not kidding. It really was the bedbugs, not the uproar over the blatant violation of the emoluments clause.The moment the quality of Trump’s real estate was attacked, he caved. He can’t afford to have the rep of his “premium” properties sullied. And that’s the key:
The Media’s Latest GOP Voice of Reason…Isn’t
by tristero
The mainstream media is still seeking that mythical savior, the Reasonable Republican — and Mitt Romney looks like the Hollywood version of deep seriousness: strong jaw, elegantly grayed hair, and as white as it gets. And of course Romney is also male-iciously male to boot. There’s just one little problem:
Romney votes Trump nearly 80% of the time. Romney’s no voice of reason. He’s a rightwing elitist nutjob who, let’s not forget, blithely wrote off 47% of American voters as not worth his attention.
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The Guardrails
by tristero
They’re deserting what appears to be a sinking ship. And we’re starting to see the outline of an excuse from those who have jumped overboard. The rough outline goes like this:
“I did what I could to save the country from Trump and I could only do that from the inside.”
Bullshit.
They weren’t mitigating the damage. At worst they were enabling and covering it up. At best, they were merely stretching out the amount of time that Trump got away with it in order to advance their own (usually ethically dubious) agendas.
In other words, there were never any “guardrails around the Trump presidency.” There were only grifters.
Sure, the quip Mattis’s speechwriter wrote about bone spurs is amusing. But it doesn’t let him off the hook. He’s as morally culpable as Barr, Miller, Mnuchin, Mulvaney, Pence, and the rest of the Whole Sick Crew:
Thomas M. Nichols, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, said he did not think the speech was an occasion for laughter.
“I don’t think anyone should be chuckling at Mattis’s brush off of Trump’s insult,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s his facile way of dodging the reality that he knows a lot about what happened in this White House, including what are now obviously impeachable acts directly related to his time as SECDEF.”
That is exactly right. And by the way, being a serially bad judge of character — the only conceivable (and feeble) excuse for Mattis’s agreeing to serve on the Board of Theranos and in Trump’s cabinet — does not absolve Mattis his responsibility to come forward about any wrongdoing he witnessed or possibly partook in.
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Just a Reminder
by tristero
That seriously disturbed man who just had a meltdown? He can, on a whim, order nuclear strikes anywhere.
Every moment that man is president is a moment during which all life on earth hangs by a thread.
Trump Portrayed as Vengeful Mass Murderer — By His Ardent Supporters
by tristero
Tom weighed in on this below, and set the ghastly context. But let’s not forget: Trump and his crime family was paid by the group that screened this. They screened it at an extreme right conference held at Trump’s “Miami resort.”
The video, which includes the logo for Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, comprises…
…a scene inside the “Church of Fake News,” where parishioners rise as Mr. Trump — dressed in a black pinstripe suit and tie — walks down the aisle. Many parishioners’ faces have been replaced with the logos of news media organizations, including PBS, NPR, Politico, The Washington Post and NBC.
Mr. Trump stops in the middle of the church, pulls a gun out of his suit jacket pocket and begins a graphic rampage. As the parishioners try to flee, the president fires at them. He shoots Black Lives Matter in the head, and also shoots Vice News.
Some of those in the church try to apprehend Mr. Trump. He fends them off and makes his way toward the altar, knocking over several pews. He wrestles a parishioner with a Vice News logo as a face to the ground and then shoots the person at point blank range. In the background, the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, is seen trying to get away.
From there, Mr. Trump attacks a range of his critics. He strikes the late Arizona senator John McCain in the back of the neck. He hits the television personality Rosie O’Donnell in the face and then stabs her in the head. He strikes Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California. He lights the head of Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential rival, on fire.
He takes Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, hostage before throwing him to the ground. Then he strikes former President Barack Obama in the back and throws him against a wall.
Others shown in the video include Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; former President Bill Clinton; the film producer Harvey Weinstein; and Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is overseeing an impeachment inquiry of Mr. Trump.
The clip ends with Mr. Trump putting a stake into the head of a person with a CNN logo for a face. Mr. Trump then stands on the altar, admiring his rampage, and smiles.
The video is similar in style to one Mr. Trump tweeted in July 2017, in which he is shown at a wrestling match body slamming CNN’s logo and beating it up.